A user will often perform a query search to lookup information on the Web or from other data sources. A query search begins with a client receiving the query string, which is sent to a search server. The search server receives query string and searches a search index for results that match this query string. The indices can include web pages or other objects available across a network, or can include information about objects located locally on the device (e.g., files, media, contacts, and/or other types of objects stored locally on the device). This search allows a user to determine which of the web pages that are accessed remotely or objects located locally on the device that match the query. Accessing one of these web pages or local objects will load the web page in a web browser.
Some web pages or other objects include deep links that are a reference to a location in an application, such as a location in a mobile application executing on mobile device. For example, the web site could be review-type web site that includes thousands or millions of reviews for business, services, and/or other sites of interest. In this example, one or more of the reviews hosted on the web site could include a deep link for that review. A deep link can allow a user to access content in a mobile application, where the mobile application would likely give a richer experience for this content than the user has when viewing the same content through a web browser. This is because the mobile application is developed to handle this content, where a web browser is a generally designed application.